FCC chairman Kevin Martin wants to vote on new media-ownership rules by mid-December and had promised a report on the impact of media consolidation on broadcasters’ service to their communities before doing so.

Former FCC chairman Michael Powell launched the localism proceeding in 2003 as part of an ownership-rule rewrite that was ultimately remanded by a federal court back to the FCC for better justification. It is that rewrite Martin wants to conclude after some 18 months.